THIS SACK An Editorial

Plywood up qnd At 'em

Plywood producers, pressed by growing competition from aluminum, plastics, steel and concrete, are doing something about it. Component parts, highway signs, refrigerator doors, aluminum-plywood components-these are just a few of the items they say you'll be seeing more of in the near future.

But a pertinent fact along this line is that many a man has created a better article, and then had to sit and watch some superior salesman crowd him out of the market selling an inferior product.

It happens every day. It may be true as the old saw says, that "Virtue hath its own reward," but it may not be the sort of reward that will keep its possessor out of the bankruptcy court.

The fact is that the road to success lies in making a better article and then getting a better salesman to handle it. Then the more the production department improves upon the article, the more the crack salesman will sell and, continuing the circle, the more incentive the firm will have for making a still better article.

Privqle Housing Storts in Augusl Highesr for Month Since | 95O

Nonfarm housing starts rose to 129,000 in August from 126,000 in July, according to preliminary estimates of the Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. Publicly owned dwelling units accounted for practically all of the increase. The August 1959 starts total for privately and publicly owned units was 6/o greater than a year ago, and the highest recorded for August except in 1950.

The l24,8OO privately owned dwelling units begun in August were almost unchanged from July, though a moderate seasonal increase usually occurs between July and August. They represented a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,340,000, down a little from the estimated rate of 1,350,000 for July and 1,368,000 for June. When averaged for the first eigbt months, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of priva-ti starts in 1959 amounted to' 1,379,000, compared with the much lower rate of 1,042,000 for the same 1958 period.

By the end of August 1959, a total of 973,400 new private and public dwelling units had been put under construction, an advance of 26/o over the first eight months of 1958, and somewhat below the 8-month record total of 992,000 in 1950. This year's private total (947,000 units) exceeded by 225,W0 units the 1958 private total for the first eight months.